Android – a mobile operating system runs on the Linux kernel. Developed by Android Inc., and later purchased by Google, and recently by the Open Handset Alliance (a consortium of 47 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices). It allows developers to write Java managed codes and control the device via Google-developed Java libraries. Offers applications that can be downloaded and installed with the aid of wireless network (Wi-Fi). However, unlike Symbian OS and Windows Mobile, Android does not support video-call or native J2ME and blue tooth file exchange.

Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license on 5th November 2007. Since its release Android has undergone several updates from fixing bugs to adding new features.

On 30 April 2009, the official 1.5 (Cupcake) update for Android was released. Several new features and UI updates included were ability to record and watch videos with the camcorder mode, direct video and picture uploads to YouTube and Picasa, QWERTY keyboard, animations between screens, ability to automatically connect to a bluetooth device within a certain range, bluetooth A2DP support, new widgets and folders that can populate desktop and expanded ability of copy and paste to include web pages.

In the interim Donut 1.6 was released with more improved features and updates.

The latest revision is the Éclair 2.0 SDK released on 26th October 2009. Among the changes are: Optimized hardware speed, revamped UI, new browser UI and HTML support, increased screen size and better resolution, improved Google Maps, improved virtual keyboard, in-built flash and digital zoom for camera, bluetooth 2.1, Microsoft Exchange support, new contact lists and improved white/black ratio for backgrounds.

Android OS is adaptable to larger VGA, 2D & 3D Graphics along with traditional smart phone layouts. It supports connectivity technologies – GSM/EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging including threaded text messaging. The audio/video formats supported by Android include MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC, HE-AAC (in MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, OGG Vorbis, H.263, H.264 (in 3GP or MP4 container), WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP.

Additional hardware support includes video/still cameras, touch-screen, GPS, accelerometers, magnetometers; accelerated 2D bit blits (with hardware orientation, scaling, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D graphics.

For developers it provides device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE.

Libraries written in C and other languages can be compiled to ARM native code and installed using the Android Native Development Kit. Native classes can be called from Java code running under the Dalvik VM using the System.load Library call, part of the standard Android Java classes.

Google has contributed in the Android Market by offering several applications for its services. These applications include Google Voice, Scoreboard for following sports, Sky Map for watching stars, Finance, Maps Editor, Places Directory, Google search engine and My Tracks, a jogging application. Thus, Google-Android phones include the ‘Google Experience’ – Google Search, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Navigation and Gmail.

An enthusiasm to build and share Android-based firmware with customizations and additional features, such as FLAC audio support and the ability to store downloaded apps on the microSD card has motivated and compelled Android owners to regularly update features and incorporate unreleased functionalities in the firmware.

HTC Dream, released on 22 October 2008 was the first mobile phone running on Android OS. 18 handset models were released, worldwide by the end of 2009. According to Gartner Inc. Android would become the world’s second most popular smart-phone platform by 2012.

Taiwan’s Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) predicts that in 2013, 31.8 million Android phones and 126 million Android-based portable products would be sold across the globe.

The future of the Android technology is booming while its’ present is blooming!